Repeating; Repeating

So I was just goofing off with my cousin tonight and in the process of him drinking vodka and our journey through indie rock from earlier in the decade I read a post that I originally wrote here over a year ago. I skimmed it over at first and then re-read it only to realize that my life seems to be a routine feeding of deja-vu. While I’ve known that since I left college that my life has been in a cycle of repeatedness I never set focus to the fact that I have everything I wanted a year ago and more… so perhaps it’s time that I move on in search of greater things?

I’ve been attending to get back into school at the latest by the fall; with only a few years left I could easily finish off and perhaps work towards a post grad before I turn 30. While I’m not really sure what I want to do — something in science — I’m sure that I’ll be happy with my choice once I make it. The next few months are going to be a transitional period in my life where I finally sit down and accomplish a few more small goals before I move on into the future (I say that loosely).

All in all, compared to last year.. I’ve quit smoking, I’m in better shape, I have support in my life and things seem to be making sense. And in comparison to the post I made in 2007 I live with my cousins in Charlotte as compared to where we were, have this wonderful house and everything fell into place just fine in the end.

Well, here’s to another few years where I accomplish what I set out to and don’t realize it!

A Not-So Perfect Guide to a Better World

Love: by definition a good thing; perhaps that’s why everyone in the world seeks it on some level. Although everyone might seek it for a different reason than the next, we all seek compassion and comfort from others in our lifetimes. It is almost as if nature programmed in our genes the need to feel cared for, wanted, desired or whatever a person’s individual case may be. Regardless I find myself shocked at the lack of compassion I find amongst people in the world. While I may not be the greatest person in the world (at times I wish I could bury my head beneath the sand like an ostrich) I still find it hard not to be humane and decent to those I meet — stranger and friend alike. How can people be ruthless?

It starts with a simple question: what would it take for someone to be indecent to another? While I always thought as a child that anyone who’d commit harm to another person purposefully had to be a “bad” person I never thought that the world could harbor so many who do so. Everytime I hear of someone being murdered or a war here or there I sit back to msyelf and ponder how anyone could want to actually make someone else feel pain. Hell, I can’t stand a paper cut let alone wish something of that minor magnitude against anyone; how can someone feel so confident and bold to end another’s life? Perhaps it’s a good thing I don’t know; I can only imagine that pure torment or dementia must grip someone’s sanity to commit such an act. Unfortunately men, women and children are killed or harmed daily out other’s sheer greed. How could anyone desire something so bad as to spill blood? The concept is foreign to me.

Given the state of the world I wish that an answer could be found for the senseless slaughter of other. We are all humans; while my skin colour may not be that of Person X or Human Y I know that we’re all made of the same fleshy fabric as another. Maybe compassion is inherited or learned; perhaps the fantasy world that I lived in for the greater portion of my childhood kept me from experiencing the things that others have. Either way, during the years of my adulthood that I’ve gone through thus far I’ve become fairly dissapointed in humanity. I may not have the right to judge us as a race but damn, if we as a whole stepped back and looked at what we’ve done perhaps the total perspective of it all would be an eye opener. Eve so, what if there were still those who harmed? How would we go about handling said problems? Making a totalitarian move for peace would result in pain and possibly death… therefore continuing the cycle.

Maybe we could start somewhere small and simple? Afterall, change occurs over time; change without transition is unnatural. The best suggestion I can toss out there to each and every person I could meet and to those I never will would be simple: the first person you see you should be kind to. How? It’s simple.. let someone out during rush hour so they don’t have to sit five more minutes waiting to go somewhere! You could also just smile at someone you see who looks upset. Perhaps something I’ve seen that really impressed me was a woman who always paid for the person before her’s coffee whether or not she knew them. We’re a brilliant people with minds that can create airplanes, harness electricity and even chart the space beyond our atmosphere; how hard is it to be kind to someone? You never know.. you could make someone’s day, save someone’s life or give a stranger hope.

In the end, we are all people. We all want to be loved on some level. As a whole we could push forward and make the world a better place for our children by being nice. It sounds extremely simple but wouldn’t you want your children to not have the shock of evil in the world oneday? While it may be impossible to end all of the bad (such a taboo word) we could at least show what we desire: love. Give a little and get a little in return… afterall, everyone deserves to smile.

To Whom it May Concern

A chill spread through the air of Dalaran; while not uncommon, this wind carried with it the tears and sorrow of many. The looming horror of Icecrown Citadel seemed to loom closer than usual in the horizon while the citizens of Dalaran and heroes alike began their morning routine. Through the sparkling gleam of the city, the sun shined slightly dimmer… and even though the magic in the air was once again free from the calamity of the blue dragonflight’s grasp something didn’t settle quite right.

A lone figure with bearing the robes of Silvermoon magii solemnly left the Violet Citadel with something bundled in what looked liked the infamous cloak of the Illidari Council in his arms. The figure, clad in the royal red and gold of the sin’dorei, kept his hood low and trodded his way towards the Sunreaver’s domain of the city in search of a lone paladin. As he found his way into the Horde’s domain of the city the elf began to search for the paladin through taverns and training rooms… until he found him at bay working out a new pair of drums of war for a young troll berserker. The magii eyed him cautiously.

“Mi’lord Frater; the Argent Crusader?” he asked nervously. The elve’s eyes twitched nervously and uncomfortably as the elder paladin eyed him up and down. The elder’s eyes locked on the bundle under the mage’s robes and locked his eyes with the younger elve’s. Words didn’t escape from his mouth as a sudden trail of freezing air drifted through the city. From within his robe, the elf reached for a small scroll and handed it to the paladin. Frater reached for it and slowly unbound it as a lone tauren warrior slowly walked over cautiously.

In the enchanted text, the words read themselves aloud in a voice all too familiar…

Well Frater… you always said I bit off more than I could chew. I guess you were right… I should’ve… never gone alone into the citadel. I gave them a hell of a fight… everyone… in Silvermoon would be proud… even if you never cared for the bazaar… but… they can’t… save me. The ebon… blade… the… crusade… we… made our move…. he… was… there. The scourge.. might.. have cut me… but they… will never…. take my… soul. I’m sor–ry.. I was so rash… I sh-*cough*-ld’ve told… you…. please… I’m… sorry. When… you… get…. I…. be… gone. Keep… Tempest… yours… sorry…

The Magii looked at Frater and saw the stone resolve in his eyes, blinded by what seemed to be tears. He handed over the cape and watched miraculously as he unbound the Tempest of Chaos and wield it nearly naturally in his hands. In a cry of loss, he shouted to the sky and struck the chill wind with the blade, as if to strike at the heart of evil itself. Over his shoulder, he saw the tauren grab his axe and roar in pain. More came forward… forsaken, trolls and even a lone dwarf… and in the midst of the frozen morning, they all howled in pain. From the distance you could see two elven death knights in Silvermoon garb say a prayer to the dead. The Sunreaver’s Sanctum poured with emotion… The scourge would pay. Neythas was dead.

…

It’s been an amazing few years of my life and I’m going to miss everyone. Much love to all of my friends whom I’ve ever made in the game.

rawr!

I’m going to update this thing soon.

More real life junk, more raiding stuff and other goodies.

All content cleared in 25 mans as well. <3 Silent Saga.

I’ll post later!

The end of Arcane Mages?

Or to be more specific, the end of arcane raiding mages? 3.0 is to be released tonight and while I’ve spent a lot of time on the public test realm playing with each spec… I feel arcane is dead. Why? Arcane blast has been depleted as a nuke spell (ie: frostbolt, fireball). The spell that gave life to arcane as a defined raid spec that could complete against the other two has been changed signifigantly. Potion Sickness keeps us from chain chugging mana potions through encounters.

Let’s examine the details:

Arcane Blast on live currently scales with cast time and mana cost. As of the patch, arcane blast will scale up in damage instead of cast time and the debuff has been shortened to 3 seconds… meaning the debuff will drop if you cast any spell besides arcane blast in succession. While Missile Barage is being brought into play, the most damage you can do is via Arcane Blast spamming with the debuff up for as long as you can. Now it’s cast AB or don’t bother. That debuff takes 9 seconds to get back up instead of 3-5.

The cost has gone up signifigantly as well. 200% per stack. 3 casts will burn through most mage’s mana pool in even tier 6 gear. So… why mess with the spell period? All it is now is a mana dump (unless that encounter is ever needed in a raid… I see no use for it whatsoever, mages need mana).

So… we get no more haste from the spell but more damage? Given that the Arcane Barrage spell will use 1 second from the GCD and that Frostfire Bolt (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=44614#comments) requires 3 seconds to cast… what else could we stick in there between rotations and keep the debuff up? It looks like Blizzard doesn’t want us spamming AB anymore:

• Current AB Spamming Yields:
  Cast 1: 2.5 Seconds, 4500 dmg
  Cast 2: 2.0 Seconds, 4500 dmg
  Cast 3: 1.5 Seconds, 4500 dmg

Totals: 13500 dmg, 6 Seconds yielding 2250~ DPS

• New AB Change Yields:
  Cast 1: 2.5 Seconds, 4500 dmg
  Cast 2: 2.5 Seconds, 5175 dmg
  Cast 3: 2.5 Seconds, 5850 dmg
  Cast 4: 2.5 Seconds, 6525 dmg

Totals: 22050 dmg, 10 Seconds yielding 2205~ DPS.

With Netherwind Presence talented 3/3 (6% haste):

Totals: 22050 dmg, 9.4 Seconds yielding 2345~ DPS.

This puts us closer to what AB spam is currently at theoretically.

That’s not taking into consideration the mana cost. Theoretically, as haste is near worthless with the Arcane spec now due to the high amounts needed to affect the cast time on AB (ie: Bloodlust, Drums, Veins) this does give us the opportunity to stack haste with Arcane and see a much larger benefit (yay for Haste). I suppose AB spamming would still be viable if not for the increased mana cost. By the way, the numbers above are just theoretical numbers assuming you hit for the same damage in a row and all… they’re there for the math calculations alone just to flesh out how the AB change looks. It does appear that the AB debuff will still affect the +dmg also, so you’d get more damage from Arcane Blast per debuff.

• No Debuff / 1 Debuff / 2 Debuffs / 3 Debuffs
  0% +dmg / 15% +dmg / 30% +dmg / 45% +dmg

Theoretical Arcane Mage Raid Build for WotLK:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=of0qcu0hqIfRihAoZVV00o

I only have Empowered Missiles talented for Missile Barrage procs. The 2.5 missile casting would be sleak on that proc due to it fitting within the 3 second debuff dropoff. Otherwise I’d just spam AB as usual. I’m really happy that I leveled leatherworking now for drums as the haste will really help out on the arcane spec as before it’s been iffy.

The rest of the talents are self explanatory I believe.

Netherwind Presence gives 6% haste to all spells. This would reduce Arcane Blast to a 2.35 second cast time. I also toyed with talenting a bit more and I’d go for the following spec if they released this live before Lich King is released:

Using the same numbers and talents above… let’s see how Icy Veins has affects Arcane Blast now and in Wrath (I’m assuming that the debuff is up maxed here on both accounts as I never blow Veins until I have 3 stacks of the debuff currently):

Current Arcane Blast / 20 Seconds of Icy Veins = 1.2 Second Cast Time; 16 Casts Possible

New Arcane Blast / 20 Seconds of Icy Veins = 2 Second Cast Time; 10 casts possible

Putting in some raw numbers, let’s assume you currently hit for 2800 dmg per average Arcane Blast and that you do not crit at all when using Icy Veins to give us the lowest theoretical damage possible:

• Arcane Blast currently
  Average DMG / Casts Possible / Duration / Total DPS|
  2800 * 16 / 20 = 2240

• Upcoming Arcane Blast
  Average DMG / Debuff % Modifier / Average DMG with Modifier / Casts Possible / Duration / Total DPS(2800 * 100 / 45 + 2800 = 4060) * 10 / 20 = 2030

So… you see the math.
Arcane would be awesome if not for the mana cost increase I believe as well as a talent to increase mana regen/spirit.

The “Help!” Post

Given that I’ve had an influx of people asking for advice recently, I’m going to try and consolidate questions and answers into posts every now and then. If you have any questions about the arcane playstyle in a raiding environment, feel free to reply to this post or drop me a private message on the forums.

So, let’s get this started!

Question: Do you really need 2 pieces of Tier 5 to be arcane?

• Yes and no. The 2 piece set bonus is amazing for arcane as your primary nuke gets 20% increased damage. You do not necessarily have to have the set bonus but your potential DPS is going to be gimped by not having it. If you’re just entering SSC / TK, I highly recommend gunning for those pieces before anything else (the legs and the shoulders are cakewalk to get with a decent guild). With 2.4’s release and the dying of a lot of Tier 5 level guilds it can be hard to come by… but I strongly urge you get them. A friend of mine, Shino, waited 6 months to get his.

Question: I have mages in my raid gemming for Intellect and Spirit. WTF?

• The goal of the 40/0/21 spec is to spam arcane blast for as long as you can. This means popping mana potions, mana gems, drums of restoration, innervates, shadow priests, gear with spirit / mp5 and to some extent (usually in extremity) stacking Int and Spirit gems. Why? Because the longer you spam Arcane Blast, the more DPS you do. It’s that simple. Sure, you can rotate in some frostbolts here and there or other spells, but the point of the 40/0/21 build is simple: keep up your mana and and Arcane Blast. As a raid leader, you can help out your mages a bit as well: give them a shadow priest and/or shaman(s) and to a more extreme degree, if your druids aren’t using their innervates, have them give it to an arcane mage that’s low on mana (they’ll love your healers forever). If they’re gemming for Int and Spirit, they either don’t have a large enough mana pool or improper raid support for their spec.

Question: Why 40/0/21? I am doing 50/0/11 in 4 MH/4 BT and enjoying most of my damage coming from AB spam and only using AM to drop the AB debuff when mana is getting low. I am using IV, but with loads of AB spam my DPS isn’t too improved by that. Therefore I am very perplexed about 40/0/21 build. Please elaborate the differences between 50/0/11 and 40/0/21 and why do you think the latter is better.

• Comparatively, AM to Frostbolt (due to the points in your traditional 40/0/21 build) will yield more damage per mana. While spamming frostbolt with enough spirit / mp5, you’ll be able to regain mana in order to continue AB spam. Plus with a 40/0/21 build if you grab Cold Snap, you get the added benefit of back to back Icy Veins. While the jump from a (fully debuffed) 1.5 to 1.2 second cast time isn’t huge, it certainly is a DPS increase. You gain 33~ (assuming you’re standing still) Arcane Blasts over well timed (40 seconds total, back to back) Icy Veins whereas you get 16~ with just one. Plus on fights like Teron Gorefiend where spell pushback is a pain (thankyou Doom Blossoms!), Icy Veins is quite the DPS increase (since it gives you no pushback). I feel it gives you more flexibility while giving a lot of strong points (150% crit damage) to your secondary nuke, Frostbolt.

Question: What spell rotation do you use in a fight that sucks your mana dry?

• I spam Arcane Blast until I have to use a potion or a gem. If I know that mana is going to be tough due to group makeup / fight mechanics / etc. then I’ll usually settle with Arcane Blasting and Frostbolting a few times to keep the AB debuff up and just continuing to AB spam as much as possible. For example, on the Illidari Council encounter, I blow everything at once on Garithos and then just use a pseudo rotation of however many ABs I can fit in until I need to frostbolt a few times. The lowest I’d ever go would be ABx3 > Frostbolt x2. Even then, my DPS is still fine.

Question: Should I use my cooldowns at the start or as my raid leader says, save them for the end of the fight?

• That’s up to you. I personally use everything I have within the first minute of the fight to make sure I have them again throughout the fight when needed. I’ve been able to get off two evocates before in one fight (Kael’thas). In the end, the way I see things is if I save them for the end of a fight that’s lost DPS that I could’ve contributed during the entire encounter … which inturn, may have been what was needed between that last 1% or not.

Well, that’s all for this post. Feel free to ask your own questions and I’ll reply to them in a future post.

Neythas.com Forums

Just an fyi, I’ve opened up a forum counterpart to this blog. Feel free to register, post and have a merry old time discussing various aspects of the mage class with fellow mages.

The link will now be in the sidebar. For those that are lazy,

http://forums.neythas.com

How to: Tank High Nethermancer Zerevor

Or, how to easily and succesfully mage tank during the Illidari Council encounter.

What You’ll Need:

• 10.5k HP Minimum (11k+ preferable), Stamina Buffs/PVP gear helps here
• Arcane Hit Maxed (5/5 Arcane Focus + 76 hit)
• A solid nuking spell (I use Frostbolt as 40/0/21)

Things to Know:

• You have a 1% chance to have your spellsteal resisted
• You should never iceblock if you are about to be hit by a spell (he’ll switch targets)
• The Dampen Magic buff you spellsteal overwrites resistances (resist gear is useless)
• You do not need a misdirect for this pull, but it helps a lot
• Zerevor has a chance to blink upon the pull, meaning it can be hard to grab him at first (more below)
• Zerevor will cast an arcane explosion that nukes most classes instantly within 5-10 yards of melee range (nobody should be near him)
• Expect to be hit by each Arcane spell he casts at you for 3.4k-3.8k damage

The Pull / Starting the Fight

Quite similar to the High King encounter, the pull on this fight is crucial. A bad pull is a wipe. Your first aim when starting the pull is to Dampen Magic yourself (you may remove this afterwards, it just helps incase he blinks on the pull) as well as a Mana Shield. Blessing of Protection/Power Word: Shield help out a lot here as well incase you get an unfortunate cast from Lady Malande (the priest). A hit from her and Zerevor without the Dampen Magic buff spellstolen will almost guarantee your death. Once the pull begins, immediately spellsteal his Dampen Magic buff. From there, use an instant cast spell (Presence of Mind + Fireball/Frostbolt, Fire Blast but do not use Ice Lance due to the poor threat it generates). Once you attain a good 2-3 casts on him, he’s under your control.

Moving Zerevor

At this point, move him away from the raid (if he isn’t misdirected to you). It takes about a 30-35 yard distance away from him for him to begin moving towards you. Let your healer know when you’ll be moving so they can do the same. Moving him away from the raid allows everyone else more room to maneuver with the AOE affects that he and the paladin use (flamestrike/blizzard/consencrate) as well as gives the Malande team (tank / healers / interrupts) more room to work with without having to worry about getting in range of Zerevor’s melee range AOE (it’s a nasty Arcane Explosion that leads to 1-shot deaths). I pull him to the left side of the room completely away from the raid and my healer stays near me (see screenshots below).

Tricks/Tips

• If you can time it right, if you’re envenomed, you can iceblock out of it. DO NOT allow yourself to be hit with one of his spells during this time or he’ll target someone else and good luck getting him back at that point without any deaths. This can potentially help your healer if you get envenom from the rogue.
• Do not corner yourself into a corner or back yourself into a wall. It makes getting out of AOE and healing hard.
• If you get an aoe tick of flamestrike or blizzard, use Fire or Frost Ward to negate some damage.
• Keep Aggro over your healer(s) — this shouldn’t be an issue.
• Do as much damage as you can, but keeping aggro and not staying in AOE is your priority.

Here are some images to give you a better idea of where to start the pull and where to tank him:

• Where to pull if you have no misdirect: Link
• Where to be misdirected (if you have it) / tank Zerevor: Link

Good luck! I hope this guide helps those out who are about to make their first attempts on the Illidari Council.

Sunwell Plateau Trash Farming

Sunwell Plateau Trash Farming
So, I’ve gotten a lot of flak about farming Sunwell trash. If you think it’s a joke, I dare you to try it on your own. It’ll require skill and it can be done with as few as 10 people. It’s also a great way to work out team coordination. Plus, you’ll yield various goodies such as epic gems, Sunwell trash drops, patterns, Marks of the Illidari and other goodies.

You will need: At minimum, 1 tank, 2 healers, 3 dps (hunter prefered) and 5 mages. Granted, ideally you’d have more. You can also do it with less mages. You’ll understand what I mean as a minimum requirement, though, in just a moment. In the image below, I’m going to show some things and explain them all. Pay attention to the colouring of everything.

(click on the image to see a larger version)

Important Things to Note

1. You do not ever want to pull the Arcane Protector. If you do, you better have a full raid and stacked on top of one another for group healing and have the tank face him the other direction.
2. You don’t want to pull the group in the green circle as it’s not your concern.
3. The Red Line is where the Arcane Protector will aggro from. PS: He can see through stealth.
4. The Yellow line is where the groups will pull aggro from.
5. The group in the red circle is what you want to kill.

 So, with that said. I’ll explain the markings.

• Skull: Vindicator. Nasty Paladin type fellow. Kill first.
• Moon/Square: Priests. They’re the most dangerous of the lot and must be chain sheeped.
• Triangle can be slept. Or Sheeped. Or whatever. It’s a beast.
• Circle/Diamond are warlocks. They summon imps periodically and you must keep them off your CC as whoever is CCing adds must live. If a priest gets lose, they’re doom to a small group.

I cannot emphasise that the priests must be chain sheeped and then tackled one by one. Their Shadow Word: Pain is hurtful on clothies and leather wearers. I suggest 5 mages due to the ease of CC control, though you can do this with anyone who is amazing with Crowd Control. Mages are the best on priests due to their being able to chain sheep. This may be attempted with a druid sleeping the dragonhawk and other forms of CC or multiple tanking. But remember: if you multi-tank this, a paladin will be the best for the warlocks due to his/her consencrate grabbing the imps that spawn. They should be killed immediately. The Vindicator will hit your tank fairly hard, so get this one out of the way first. He’s the easiest of the pull. Then lob off in whatever order you feel like, saving the priests for last.

Now, this next part is key.

Do not kill the last priest. Instead, have a mage chain sheep it until all loot has been distributed; everyone runs out and it resets. Rinse/repeat. I’ve managed to keep pulls down to 3-4 minutes each and had a lot of success.

It’s that simple. Now, go get to it and enjoy some of the best patterns and items in the game, not to mention gems and other goodies. Some of the items sell for extremely high prices as well; this is good for making money and gearing up a raid towards Sunwell Plateau.

Special thanks goes out to Keiichi (H) on Silvermoon for teaching me these tricks; he developed the plan, so credit should go to him. I’m just showing and explaining things in detail. Good luck and have fun!

 

Lately…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. I apologize about that. Between real life, raiding and various other things, I haven’t been able to keep up to speed with writing here. Well, here’s to round two!

A lot of people have noticed my switching to a 40/0/21 build and have commented on it. I changed my spec signifigantly due to multiple reasons: my gear was fairly upgraded, due to the spirit change with 2.4, the use of Cold Snap / Icy Veins in the frost tree and above all, being in a group with an extremely skilled shadow priest and personal preference.

Why fix what isn’t broken though? Well, honestly, for the gear I’ve grown into as a raider, my spec was broken. Prior to my respec I used your typical AB / AM / Scorch rotation in a raid environment. Due to haste mechanics and channeling spells and the haste gear that I’d been acquiring, I was running into the issue of AM not really scaling with damage well. That and holding on to the AB debuff was becoming a bit trickier. So, that problem needed to be alleviated. I switched to the 40/0/21 build because I was backed by a pretty solid raid group containing a shadow priest and a deep frost mage (with Winter’s Chill) – my rotation then changed to an AB / Frostbolt makeup. It handled the haste better and I saw a signifigant increase in damage. If I’m ever under an extremely mana intessive encounter, that rotation has a more solid foundation for haste gear than my prior one (I could be wrong, but whatever). More importantly, though, was my ability to make use of Icy Veins at least three times per most encounters instead of two. By speccing deep enough into frost, I’m able to Cold Snap and have the Icy Veins usable back to back on the first use. Fortunately, with about 300-400 mp5 raid buffed (yes, there are occasions that I use Superior Mana Oil, mp5 food, Draenix/Elixirs of Mastery) and a solid shadow priest, I’m literally able to just spam AB nonstop throughout a raid encounter. Being able to maintain at least 30% crit and over 1200 damage, it’s a really solid nuke (especially with two pieces of the Tirisfal Regalia for the set bonus). That and with my personal preference, I leveled frost — plus I don’t have the hit gear to back up fire spells (just frostbolt due to the bug of only requiring 129 hit). Sure, some say it’s silly to base a spec on a broken spell, but I’m going to use it to my advantage until it’s fixed. Hell, even then my frostbolts only miss on average 1.2% of the time according to WowWebStats.. so..

As I’ve progressed from Tier 5 encounters into Black Temple and Hyjal Summit, I’ve been doing everything I can to keep myself ahead by putting out more numbers needed for the content – thankfully, the gear I have allows me to back up my spec really well. Until I get either the gear to back either a solid fire or frost build (to take advantage of more haste since AB doesn’t get that much use from it since it’s nearly always at it’s quickest cast from the debuff) or unless my gear becomes stronger for arcane, this is going to be my raid spec for a while.

One of the things that I’m enjoying about my spec is the ability to get off an occasional frostbolt with Presence of Mind mid-fight. The use of frost on trash is helpful as well due to the freezing mechanics (it doesn’t apply to all, but it is nice and saves me from having to talent Slow). Plus, the versatility I have in encounters where mana isn’t something to toy with helps out a bit.

While I’ve known a lot of mages to gem for more Intellect and Spirit for damage/mana pool/regen, I’ve only gemmed a few pieces with those gems based on where I feel my mana pool needs to be at.

So, I guess that really sums it up for my respec. I’ll go into detail further down the line as well as cover some of the trickier boss fights in Black Temple and Hyjal Summit as I get further in progression.

Cheers!